


disconnect

by saddiebey



Series: rockstar au [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Rockstar AU, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 08:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16806724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saddiebey/pseuds/saddiebey
Summary: jason and duke bond. dick just doesn't get it, but what's new?





	disconnect

**Author's Note:**

> i posted this during the summer and deleted it with the intention of adding more and girl, honestly, it doesn't need anything else. this au has been kicking my ass. the idea won't leave my head so boom, here it is.

“want one?”

“jason, i’m thirteen.”

“you’ll be fourteen in like, a week.”

“i’m still not old enough to-”

“when has that ever stopped you from doin’ somethin’ you ain’t supposed to? ‘sides, i’ve seen you bum cigs off those snotty ass kids from uptown.”

duke’s cheeks burn as he grabs a cigarette from jason’s outstretched fingers. “so, how’s academy life?”

“you’d know if you actually showed up.” duke snorts, “bat knows you only go to your duel enrollment courses.”

jason shrugs, “good for him.”

duke holds the cigarette between his fingers and glares down at the penny loafers on his feet. the gotham academy uniform made him uncomfortable even after five years of wearing it. he begged bruce on more than one occasion to let him go back to public school. it was clear to everyone except for bruce wayne that duke, like jason, just didn’t fit in with the kids at gotham academy. tim and dick were no help; they’d been in prep schools from the very beginning. duke had only gone to a private school for a year when the accident took his mother away from him. the next thing he knew he was in the narrows and attending the local elementary school. when his father left and he found himself in bruce wayne’s custody, he was allowed to finish out the school year even though he lived at wayne manor. bruce hadn’t wanted to uproot him more than he had been, but he always intended for duke to attend gotham academy with the other kids.

duke liked to think he was good at adapting. he'd worked hard on blending in with the academy children but he still stood out. jason had been his light at the end of the tunnel. the boy was straight out of crime alley and had never been afforded a luxury in his life until he tried to steal band merch from bruce wayne of all people. duke just hated that they were two years apart and could only see each other before school, during lunch breaks, after school and the occasional assembly. usually these meetups were only in passing. sure, they lived together but being able to have someone you could relate to in class helped. bruce assumed because tim and duke were in the same class that they’d bond because they seemingly got along at home.

he was wrong.

“bruce says if you don’t start going back to classes he’s gonna take the drums.” duke says, peering up at jason.

he still hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet. tim had about three inches on him, dick was the tallest at the moment, jason a close second, and duke was still pretty short in comparison to all three of them.

it wasn’t fair.

“he wouldn’t,”

he would.

jason let out a sigh, “whatever. they wouldn’t let me take more than four dual enrollment classes this semester. he knows these classes are too easy.”

“yeah, well...he sounded serious.”

the older boy shrugs again. along with the forced enrollment into gotham academy came the pressure to actually do well due to what the school called their _special circumstances_. duke and jason were both in accelerated classes. tim was usually the one with grade issues, something a counselor said about him acting out. jason just felt as if he wasn’t being challenged enough and opted to stick around gotham university long after his classes were over instead of returning to the academy to finish out his regular courses. duke was a good student, though bruce noticed his grades dropping the way tim’s did a year back.

“you think he’ll ever let me go back?”

“to a school in the narrows? no.” jason scoffs, “especially not since you’ve been out for so long. you may still be narrows but they don’t know that. you’re a rich boy now, prep school and all that jazz.”

duke sucks his teeth in response to that.

it’s a lie.

duke’s always welcome back to his old neighborhood, but jason won’t tell him that.

“tim said if i would’ve broken that kid’s nose in that fight last week the principal would’ve kicked me out.”

“and bruce would’ve written a check to keep you in. you ain’t going anywhere, narrows.”

“i believe the proper phrase is ‘you aren’t going anywhere’ mr. todd.”

duke and jason both looked up, surprised, at the sudden intrusion to their conversation. dick stands in front of them, grinning at their expressions. “good teacher impersonation, huh?” he easily snatched the cigarettes from their fingers then proceeded to throw them on the ground and step on them.

“you two done being statistics or do i need to force you to go to class?”

duke opts to ignore dick altogether and brushes passed his adoptive brother without so much as a glance back. dick stares at jason and shakes his head in disappointment. jason wants to tell him that he’s not bruce, but he doesn’t.

“you wanna skip class and be the bad boy in the leather jacket, fine. but duke’s thirteen and it’s clear he looks up to you so at least set a better example for him.”

“i’m not here to be an example for anyone.”

“too bad. c’mon, crime alley.”

“call me that again and i’ll punch you in your shit, grayson.”

“duke calls you that all the time.”

“he can. you can’t. that riko kid can. you can’t. isabella can. you can’t.”

“duke lived in the narrows for three years-“

“that’s all it takes, dickolas. it’s all he knows.”

“but you said-”

jason’s talking with his hands which means he can’t properly articulate what he’s trying to say and he knows dick won’t get it anyway. duke would understand. riko would understand. isabella would understand. but dick is dick and he’ll try with his endless bound of annoying optimism and jason might hit him so he lets out an exasperated sigh and brushes off his concerns.

“i just don’t want him trying to go back, okay. fitting in matters to him, just like it did for us when we were his age. he doesn’t need the narrows to fit in. it’s just... it’s different for us, okay?”

dick _can’t let shit go_ grayson opens his mouth to press the matter, but one look from jason is all he needs to shut up and make his way back into the school. he doesn’t understand their ties to their neighborhoods or why they just can’t fit in at gotham academy or what makes duke seems so anxious about leaving jason’s side or why jason can’t just go to class. but at least he can say he stopped his younger brothers from skipping class and sucking tar into their lungs.

you win some, you lose some.

“dad got us an audition.” dick says once they’re back inside.

jason inclines his head, his eyebrows raised in interest, “think they’re gonna tell us to ‘wait a few more years’, again?”

“nah, i have a good feeling about this one.”


End file.
